Increasing physical activity
A research article
described an
investigation
to determine factors that led to increased physical activity. The
participants were overweight middle-aged men with impaired glucose regulation,
and one group Nordic walked, another group took up resistance training, and the
third group didn't do anything different (control group). The control group
acted as the part of population that doesn't do anything different from what
they normally do.
All the groups
started the study at similar levels of total physical activity. Total physical
activity in the study consisted of:
- Occupational (or other
daytime) physical activity (OPA): What you do at work.
- Commuting (or transition)
physical activity (CPA): What you do to get to work.
- Leisure-time physical
activity (LTPA): What you do for fun.
- Miscellaneous home physical
activity (MHPA): The household chores you do.
- Structured physical exercise
activity (SPEA = Nordic walking or resistance training activities): What
you do when you set aside time to work out.
- Sleep: What you do when your
eyes are closed.
In structured
physical activity (workout sessions), intensity was higher in the Nordic
walking group than in the resistance training group. Increasing intensity was
seen as more beneficial to fitness than increasing the amount of exercise. We
need to understand a key point, however.
Intensity was
measured by metabolic equivalent of task (MET). It's a multiple of your energy
expended at rest. If you do an activity where the MET is rated as 5, you're
expending 5 times the energy expended at rest. Then you multiply the minutes
you do that activity to get a final result. If you perform that MET 5 activity
for 50 minutes, your total intensity is 5 X 50 = 250. MET provides a way to
compare different activities.
Note: MET looks like
it's really more of an aerobic measure, so I'm not sure how resistance exercise
can really be compared. Weight lifters have to manage their sessions closely
because the lifts break down muscle and require recovery time. Nordic walkers
can go longer and more frequently.
Overall physical
activity didn't increase, but, in comparison to the control group, the
researchers reported the
Nordic walking group
increased their leisure-time physical activity significantly but not in
the resistance training group. However, as leisure-time physical activity
increased, other kinds of physical activity decreased to compensate. The
researchers stopped short of reflecting on why the increase happened. I think
the low impact of Nordic walking and how
Nordic
walkers don't feel like they're working harder even if they really are is a
factor in encouraging people to step up their activity.
